Back to basics -- use keyboard shortcuts to open and close the fonts window and the color picker window in text editing applications.

Here are two quick and easy shortcuts to keep in mind for use in most text editing applications. Don't bother with these in Word, they don't apply. Try them in TextEdit instead.

The first you probably already know. It lets you open the font selection window. It's Command+T.

The second you may not know, but it usually works in applications where the first one works. It's Command+Shift+C and it opens the Mac Color Picker window. Two quick tips about this window:

1) If you click the magnifying glass icon, you can choose any color available on your Mac's screen, and

2) you can drag a color from any point inside the rectangle near the top of the window into one of the squares at the bottom to store it there for future reference. Try dragging the bottom right corner of the window (and/or the right edge, if you're using Lion) if you need more squares.

One last thing, use the same shortcut to hide the windows as you used to invoke them.

[crarko adds: In BBEdit, only the first shortcut works (not surprising). Both shortcuts worked in the iWork and iLife applications I tried them with, as well as TextEdit.]

While the hint is obviously intended for novice users, I think that there are experienced users who may not have realized that they could both invoke and dismiss the color picker and fonts windows with the same keyboard shortcuts. Anyway, I certainly don't think Craig nor Macworld care to promote the assertion that there's nothing for novice users at Mac OS X Hints. If they did, I agree that this hint probably wouldn't have appeared.